The Church never asks us to simply commemorate something which happened a long time ago. There is always a sense of the eternal present in our feasts, liturgy and prayer. So, today we are not just commemorating the annunciation of the angel Gabriel to Mary. We read it as a reminder that God is calling us, too, to be bearers of the living Jesus in our own moment of history.
We are encouraged by Mary’s example of being able to say ‘Yes’ to God’s invitation without having all the answers. That must have taken great trust and great open-heartedness. Read today's Gospel.
Thousands of lives have been lost and billions of dollars needed to help the victims of the recent floods in Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, the central states of the USA and northern Australia this month. In Zimbabwe at one school which was badly damaged 2 students and security guard lost their lives following cyclone Idai. Hundreds of thousands have been left homeless and without food. Please pray for all victims of flooding. You can use this prayer.
During the 2019 University of Divinity Graduation Ceremony last Friday evening Br Agedo Bento graduated with a Bachelor of Ministry degree and Br Matthew Tonini graduated with a Masters in Theological Studies. St Paul’s Anglican Cathedral, Melbourne, was packed with faculty, students, staff, family and friends for the 2 hour ceremony. Congratulations Agedo and Matthew!
The English Language School for Pastoral Ministry (Box Hill, VIC) recently held a Culture Day. Our 4 Timorese Carmelites, Fr Pedro Amaral, and Brs Agostinho Dos Santos, José Natalino Freitas and Anacleto Guterres Da Costa, were among the 18 different cultural groups involved at the School. Traditional dress, cultural songs, customs and food were shared by all.
Click here for more photos and a video of the Carmelites singing at Culture Day.
As the families of victims of the al Noor and Linwood Mosque massacres prepare to bury their loved ones and help each other heal, our thoughts and prayers go out to them. The Carmelite NGO has released a special prayer written by Fr Franciscus Ardji, OCarm.
The Carmelites of Australia and Timor-Leste are united in offering our prayers of support and consolation that our compassionate God will bring healing to our Muslim brothers and sisters and the whole of the New Zealand nation. Read the prayer here.
This Sunday’s Gospel of the Transfiguration completes the ‘little parable’ formed by the Gospels of the first two Sundays of Lent.
These Gospels tell us what Lent is about and what Christian life is about: a journey from temptation and doubt to transfiguration and faith. A journey away from allowing ourselves to be tempted to evil and towards allowing ourselves to be tempted to good by the action of God’s Holy Spirit within us.
Many times over the past few years the East Timor Students Association has met at the Carmelite Priory in Middle Park. This time it was to hold the annual elections for President and Vice President.
A total of 24 ETSA members, including our own Carmelite students, cast their votes and elected Elsa Pinto as President and Angela Tavares de Jesus as vice president of ETSA.
The handover of documents and reports from the former officers marked a new journey for ETSA under the new chairpersons.
Our great Lenten journey has begun! It’s a journey which begins in ash and ends in light. Fire is a profound part of our national experience. We know its power to destroy, blacken and reduce to ash. We know that evil can do the same - destroy our wholeness of spirit, blacken our lives and others’ and reduce the beauty of human life to so much ash.
We began Lent in the ash of acknowledging our own part in harbouring, creating and doing evil - those places in us where the fire of anger, bitterness, selfishness or narrowness of mind and heart has left nothing but smouldering ash.
On Ash Wednesday we begin our journey to the great feast of Easter.
Wearing ashes symbolises our desire for conversion, to turn again towards God. Repentance (conversion) is not so much about being sorry for individual sins. It is about changing the direction of our hearts – away from all that limits God’s love and action in us. Conversion is about opening ourselves to a fresh experience of God’s healing love which makes us whole and restores us to our rightful place as beloved daughters and sons in the Kingdom of God. It’s about moving back into right relationship with God and neighbour.
You can download reflections for each day of Lent drawn from the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals. Based on the see, judge, act method each day features a short observation about one of the goals, the scripture readings for that day and a call to do some concrete action which will help make the goal a reality in our own local situations.
